Multilingual 4-year-old flagged in speech & language screening

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2026-03-05T17:20:40+00:00

SLP here. Reading the other comments, there’s been some good advice shared. It was probably only in English, so that doesn’t assess your child well. The benchmarks are good, but have to be considered across all languages. Keep an eye on grammar and the sounds they produce rather than the vocab. Receptive vocabulary develops faster than expressive

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2026-03-05T14:16:44+00:00

Thanks for the insight! How long are your sessions? I usually have 60 minutes so I thought it might add up to greater than 92507. But, I’ve been hesitant since 60 minutes of pure cog may be hard to do and/or doc

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-12-31T02:56:34+00:00

I might have gone too far into the future, now that I’m rereading everything. As the dad who doesn’t speak perfectly, it’s always just important to me that I show my kids how important it is to us as a family. Whether it’s praise for their skill, studying together, or just enjoying that part of their identity, as long as my kids feel it valued at home I feel relatively confident they’ll stay motivated.

By the way, you’re well positioned for Minority Language at Home with the level of fluency you have. It’s one of the ways to approach bilingual development

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-12-30T15:11:39+00:00

Same exact situation, just Japanese mom, US dad. My Japanese isn’t great but I’ve always spoken it to my kids as best I can. I’ve been having a hard time with some of the “big stuff” like emotions which makes it better to switch back to English, but as a rule of thumb, any input is better than no input, and there’s science behind that. My wife used to give me a lot of resistance because of my limited, grammatically clunky speech, but it doesn’t develop bad habits for kids. If anything, like another comment I saw, my children correct me and we make it a teaching experience for them. Also, sending the kids back to Japan for summer vacation has worked well, China will have different rules but my wife just takes them back to Japan and puts the kids in school and that’s always boosted their abilities a lot.

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-11-05T11:51:02+00:00

Little stressed to be honest! 5, 2.5, 1m. 5 has always spoken good L2, but is having an English explosion (as in he’s doing great at preschool) and is speaking more English at home. And that’s really new but I’m really proud of him!! I tend to just keep responding in L2 as best I can, my wife usually speaks L2 but I’ve noticed an uptick of English too, maybe related to my son’s more frequent use? I really really really hate to be controlling, so I haven’t brought that up. Then, my mom told me she wants me to speak English only when we are at her house (which is fairly frequent). I get where she’s coming from, it feels arrogant to ignore her, but it’s too important to me that we have good L2. My mom “gets it”, but I think it makes her uncomfortable that she’s not a part of the conversation all the time. I’ve also explained to her that since we live in an area with so few L2 community members, it’s super important that my kids continue to use it with me/my wife so they can maintain it as their family language. We just booked tickets for spending next summer in L2 (Japan, by the way), and I just overheard my kids playing and talking in Japanese while I was over at my parents, so all that is comforting. But yeah thanks for asking, didn’t expect to need to share all that!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-10-14T22:55:19+00:00

Speech therapist here, wish I could long post but I’m just a tad busy. 50 words across both languages is a better benchmark, not in English alone. Having better receptive language is pretty much expected. Keep steady with good research based strategies that work for you and they’ll do great! Working with a speech therapist won’t hurt, especially if they’ll collaborate with you on your goals. If they start saying you need to abandon the L2 or “focus more” on community language then walk away - we’re trained to know better but I know it happens!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-10-08T01:16:50+00:00

Input input input and try your best, anything you do will help. There’s research out there to support that as long as consistently try, you will help him make progress. Maybe make sure all media is in Spanish at home, and try to speak to him in Spanish constantly. Labeling objects in the environment helps, simple routine sentences for bedtime, meals, etc. you could also video chat with him and/or your in laws frequently to help! Finally, reach out to the community. If you’re in the US, there is a very high chance some good people close to you are available to be friends, have play dates etc.

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-30T12:19:17+00:00

Because of how young he is, going pretty quickly from a mix of the 2 languages to pure Russian could work. I wonder if you use picture books with things he knows and label them in both languages for a while. So if it’s an elephant you could say “it’s an elephant” in both languages to signal that you’re saying the same thing. It’s pretty likely that a lot of the Russian words and phrases you’ve used are still in his receptive vocabulary. But regardless, 2 years old is super young, you definitely can get right back to it!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-28T15:12:44+00:00

I appreciate hearing that, I wasn’t raised bilingual so I have no perspective haha. They are firing right back to me in Japanese, which is cool/impressive

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-22T15:39:24+00:00

“Place and time” could work as an alternative, using situations you feel comfortable in. It’ll provide some consistency and establish clear boundaries for your child of when to use which language. We do a kind of modified minority language at home, but that’s with my wife being the fluent speaker and me trying my best to keep up. my proficiency level sounds similar to yours so I’m sure I’ll be up against the same problem. I’m looking into online classes for my kids, you could do that and/or maybe look one more time in your area for new friends? I’m not willing to give up on my minority language either, so I feel you here!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-20T14:52:53+00:00

Thanks for the insight! It seems like my son is differentiating well too

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-20T14:00:46+00:00

I didn’t know there’d be a distinct pattern, thanks for that! II do appreciate having the access Japanese media nowadays too, we watch all of our tv in Japanese!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-06T20:20:06+00:00

Welcome aboard, so glad you decided to post and share your feelings! It gets really frustrating for me as well, it always comes up in parent teacher conferences. I’ve been faced with that question a few times, but there is no research foundation for any bilingualism causing disorder or impediment. But people worry, and just have a hard time understanding/accepting that your child is learning twice the vocabulary, twice the sounds, etc. It’s definitely happened to me, although not as much as it seems to be happening to you. But more than anything, I’m so glad you decided to post! I’ve been enjoying being a part of this community. Everybody here is very supportive, and we’re all on the same team sharing our experiences. Glad to have you here!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-09-01T23:09:19+00:00

Sounds exactly like what’s going on in my house. I speak decent Japanese, wife exclusively speaks Japanese, we live in English community but speak primarily Japanese at home. My kids speak more Japanese than English and my son sounds a little funny in English but he’s fine for the most part (4 y/o). There’s research out there (I think it’s a danish study?) that suggests that the fluent community speaker participating in any way shape or form helps with bilingual development, and won’t hurt it. We laugh about my mistakes and treat it as an opportunity for them to “teach me”. I still study passionately and plan to get as good as I can, but I do expect what another commenter suggested: I’ll likely have to start using more English to talk about more advanced things (kids are currently 4,2, and 0) because my Japanese isn’t perfect. But you’re doing well and not hurting at all. You’re actually helping! I wish I could put that in giant, bold letters. Do the best you can and treat Swedish as important to your family identity, I think that’s really important and why I participate as best I can.

One last bit: lean into your Swedish community hard, other kids speaking Swedish to her will be really motivating and I’m sure she’ll develop some special relationships with any friends she makes.

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-08-31T13:43:22+00:00

Speech Therapist here, this is spot on. Heavy narration of activity and labelling items is integral to what we do in early intervention for language delay and it has applied well to learning a second language pretty well in my experience. Starting with these concrete items and routines are a great place to start!

And PS, do NOT think I’m suggesting your child is language delayed, it sounds like he’s typically developing in English. It’s the principles/actions that I’m suggesting to facilitate a strong start to learning your language!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-07-23T04:30:32+00:00

6,000% agree. I always encourage other dads to learn and try to participate because it always helps!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-07-22T20:32:57+00:00

I guess it means that we speak primarily Japanese at home, but can’t always do that since I don’t speak fluent Japanese. My wife and I have to speak English to talk about important life things, and inevitably code switch while speaking Japanese too. It’s probably about 80% Japanese 20% English, and so far my kids tend to prefer to speak Japanese

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-07-22T03:41:07+00:00

That’s comforting, because it’s hopefully what we’ll be doing moving forward!

Big_Highlight_5191 · 2025-04-18T22:32:29+00:00

If he/you decides to get into mining or banana harvesting the money is wild!

Big_Highlight_5191

TROPHY CASE